The twelve disciples sent to the lost sheep of Israel: their message and authority

So long as God gives Him access to the people, He continues His
labour of love. Nevertheless, He was conscious of the iniquity that
governed the people, although He did not seek His own glory. Having
exhorted His disciples to pray that labourers might be sent into
the harvest, He begins (Matt. 10) to act in accordance with that
desire. He calls His twelve disciples, He gives them power to cast
out devils and to heal the sick, and He sends them to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel. We see, in this mission, how much the
ways of God with Israel form the subject of this Gospel. They were
to announce to that people, and to them exclusively, the nearness
of the kingdom, exercising at the same time the power they had
received: a striking testimony to Him who was come, and who could
not only work miracles Himself, but confer power on others to do so
likewise. He gave them authority over evil spirits for this
purpose. It is this which characterises the kingdom -- man healed
of all sickness and the devil cast out Accordingly, in Hebrews 6,
miracles are called "the powers of the world to come."*

{*For then Satan will be bound and man delivered by the power
of Christ. And there were partial deliverances of the kind.}

Dependence for their need; acceptance or rejection as the King's messengers

They were also, with respect to their need, to depend entirely
on Him who sent them. Emmanuel was there. If miracles were a proof
to the world of their Master's power, the fact that they lacked
nothing should be so to their own hearts The ordinance was
abrogated during that period of their ministry which followed the
departure of Jesus from this world (Luke 22: 35-37). That which He
here (Matt. 10) commands His disciples appertains to His presence
as Messiah, as Jehovah Himself, on the earth. Therefore the
reception of His messengers, or their rejection, decided the fate
of those to whom they were sent. In rejecting them they rejected
the Lord Emmanuel, God with His people.* But, in fact, He sent them
forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. They would need the wisdom
of serpents, and were to exhibit the harmlessness of doves (rare
union of virtues, found only in those who, by the Spirit of the
Lord, are wise unto that which is good and simple concerning
evil).

{*There is a division of the Lord's discourse at verse 15. Up
to that it is the then present mission. From verse 16 we have more
general reflections on their mission, looked at as a whole in the
midst of Israel on to the end. Evidently it goes beyond their then
present mission and supposes the coming of the Holy Ghost. The
mission by which the church is called as such is a distinct thing.
This applies only to Israel they were forbidden to go to Gentiles.
This necessarily closed with the destruction of Jerusalem and the
dispersion of the Jewish nation, but it is to be renewed at the
end, till the Son of man be come. There was a testimony to the
Gentiles only, as brought before them as judges, as Paul was, and
that part of his history even on to Rome in Acts, was amidst
Jews. The latter part, from verse 16, has less to do with the
gospel of the kingdom.}

If they did not beware of men (sad testimony as to these),
they would but suffer; but when scourged and brought before
councils and governors and kings, all this should become a
testimony unto them -- a divine means of presenting the gospel of
the kingdom to kings and princes, without altering its character or
accommodating it to the world, or mixing up the Lord's people with
its usages and its false greatness. Moreover circumstances like
these made their testimony much more conspicuous than association
with the great ones of the earth would have done.

Help and encouragement

And, to accomplish this, they should receive such power and
guidance from the Spirit of their Father as would cause the words
they spoke to be not their own words, but His who inspired
them. Here, again, their relation with their Father, which so
distinctly characterises the sermon on the Mount, is made the basis
of their capacity for the service they had to perform. We must
remember that this testimony was addressed to Israel only; only
that, Israel being under the yoke of the Gentiles since the time of
Nebuchadnezzar, the testimony would reach their rulers.

Rejection of the message forseen; the testimony to be resumed in Israel

But this testimony would excite an opposition that should break
all family ties, and awaken a hatred that would not spare the life
of those who had been the most beloved. He who in spite of all this
should endure to the end should be saved. Nevertheless the case was
urgent. They were not to resist, but if the opposition took the
form of persecution, they were to flee and preach the gospel
elsewhere, for before they had gone over the cities of Israel the
Son of man should come.* They were to proclaim the
kingdom. Jehovah, Emmanuel, was there, in the midst of His people,
and the heads of the people had called the master of the house
Beelzebub. This had not stopped His testimony, but it very strongly
characterised the circumstances in which this testimony was to be
rendered He sent them forth, warning them of this state of things,
to maintain this final testimony among His beloved people as long
as possible. This took place at that time, and it is possible, if
circumstances permit, to carry it on until the Son of man comes to
execute judgment. Then the master of the house will have risen up
to shut the door. The "to-day" of Psalm 95 will be over. Israel in
possession of their cities being the object of this testimony, it
is necessarily suspended when they are no longer in their land. The
testimony to the future kingdom given in Israel by the apostles
after the Lord's death, is an accomplishment of this mission, so
far as this testimony was rendered in the land of Israel; for the
kingdom might be proclaimed as to be established while Emmanuel was
on the earth; or this might be by Christ's returning from heaven as
announced by Peter in Acts 3. And this might take place if Israel
were in the land, even until Christ should return. Thus the
testimony may be resumed in Israel, whenever they are again in
their land and the requisite spiritual power is sent forth by
God.

{*Observe here the expression "Son of man." This is the
character in which (according to Dan. 7) the Lord will come, in a
power and glory much greater than that of His manifestation as
Messiah, the Son of David, and which will be displayed in a much
wider sphere. As the Son of man, He is the heir of all that God
destines for man (see Heb. 2: 6-8, and 1 Cor. 15:27). He must, in
consequence, seeing what man's condition is, suffer in order to
possess this inheritance. He was there as the Messiah, but He must
be received in His true character, Emmanuel; and the Jews must thus
be tested morally. He will not have the kingdom on carnal
principles. Rejected as Messiah, as Emmanuel, He postpones the
period of those events which will close the ministry of His
disciples with respect to Israel, unto His coming as the Son of
man. Meantime God has brought out other things that had been hidden
from the foundation of the world, the true glory of Jesus the Son
of God, His heavenly glory as man and the church united to Him in
heaven. The Judgment of Jerusalem, and the dispersion of the
nation, have suspended the ministry which had begun at the moment
of which the evangelist here speaks. That which has filled up the
interval since then is not the subject here of the Lord's
discourse, which refers solely to the ministry that had the Jews
for its object. The counsels of God with respect to the church, in
connection with the glory of Jesus at the right hand of God, we
shall find spoken of elsewhere. Luke will give us in more detail
that which concerns the Son of man In Matthew the Holy Ghost
occupies us with the rejection of Emmanuel.}

The position of God's witnesses on earth: Christ the touchstone

Meanwhile, the disciples were to share in Christ's own position.
If they called the master of the house Beelzebub, much more they of
His household. But they were not to fear It was the necessary
portion of those who were for God in the midst of the people. But
there was nothing hid that should not be revealed. They themselves
were to hold nothing back, but were to proclaim on the housetops
all that they had been taught; for everything should be brought
into the light; their faithfulness to God in this respect, as well
as all other things. This, while it met the secret plottings of
their enemies, was itself to characterise the ways of the
disciples. God, who is light, and sees in darkness as in light,
would bring all out into the light, but they were to do this
morally now. Therefore were they to fear nothing while performing
this work, unless it were God Himself, the righteous Judge at the
last day. Moreover the hairs of their heads were numbered. They
were precious to their Father, who took notice of even a sparrow's
death. This could not happen without Him who was their
Father. Finally, they were to be thoroughly imbued with the
conviction that the Lord was not come to send peace on the earth;
no, it should be division, even in the bosom of families. But
Christ was to be more precious than father or mother, and even than
a man's own life. He who would save his life at the expense of his
testimony to Christ should lose it; he who would lose it for the
sake of Christ should gain it. He also who should receive this
testimony, in the person of the disciples, received Christ, and, in
Christ, Him that sent Him. God, therefore, being thus acknowledged
in the person of His witnesses on earth, would bestow, on whoever
received the latter, a reward according to the testimony rendered.
In thus acknowledging the testimony of the rejected Lord, were it
only by a cup of cold water, he who gave it should not lose his
reward. In an opposing world, he who believes the testimony of
God, and receives (in spite of the world) the man who bears this
testimony, really confesses God, as well as His servant. It is all
that we can do. The rejection of Christ made Him a test, a
touchstone.

The judgment of the nation decided

From that hour we find the definitive judgment of the nation,
not indeed as yet openly declared (that is in Matthew 12), nor by
the cessation of Christ's ministry, which wrought, notwithstanding
the opposition of the nation, in gathering out the remnant, and in
the still more important effect of the manifestation of Emmanuel;
but it is unfolded in the character of His discourses, in the
positive declarations which describe the condition of the people,
and in the Lord's conduct amid circumstances which gave rise to the
expression of the relations in which He stood towards them.